Phenomenological Exploration of the COVID-Time English Language Education in Universities: A Thematic Review

Abstract

Phenomenology is applied when a researcher intends to go deep into the research participants' opinions, feelings, and lived experiences to understand a phenomenon's universal nature. This paper, through an inclusion criterion, selected and explored sixteen articles (published between 2020 and 2023) that adopted phenomenology to discover the pedagogical strategies applied in English language education (ELE) in universities during the COVID emergency (2020 – 2021). It conducted thematic data analysis through the 5W1H reporting framework. It highlighted the types of phenomenology that explored English language teachers' and learners' perspectives about educational technologies (EdTechs) and related techno-pedagogies in universities. The findings categorized into six major themes highlighted that the old legacy of teaching-learning in universities was in question during the COVID time due to many new challenges the teachers and the learners faced, and the lack of infrastructural settings of educational institutes. However, the vacuum was gradually filled with the rise of new techno-pedagogies and this crisis somewhat equipped the educational stakeholders (through both synchronous and asynchronous ELE) to face any future catastrophe. The insights from this paper will help pedagogues, students, curriculum specialists, policymakers and university authorities realize the significance of the New-normal techno-pedagogies in ELE for the upcoming days or in any future emergency.